Teachers Write July 20th: My Writing Place

This week, I'm struggling all over the place. I'm writing this post on July 25th. The post that inspired it? July 20th. Last Sunday's reflection. I'm late to the party and I was doing so well! Having said that, I am super excited to be writing! This past week I was in Las Vegas at the CUE Rockstar conference and I was so lucky to learn with 100 awesome teachers and an amazing team of lead learners. Here's a shot of most of our team after the last session. We are a tired and happy group!

Team Rock Star Las Vegas

So, here I am and it's Friday night and I'm finally writing about my writing place. Last Sunday I looked at the post and loved it! But I was just too tired to write. So I made a few notes and pasted a few quotes and promised myself I would return. So here I am! Here was our prompt for last Sunday posted on Jen Vincent's blog here. 

Where do you write?

What about the atmosphere or the background noise or music helps you write?

How did you do this week? Did you meet your weekly goal(s)?

What was the pit of your week? (The hardest part, the non-fun part?)

What was the peak of your week? (The best part, the most-fun part?)

What are you looking forward to and planning for the week ahead?

The first two questions here really spoke to me. I loved the quotes Jen selected about finding our writing place. Last week, I felt GOOD. I had written a lot and written every day. The peak of my week was being on vacation with no work demands infringing on my time and I was so looking forward to writing! 

And then I went Las Vegas. I am going to be kind with myself and say that although I didn't do as much writing as I would have liked, I was always thinking about writing! Every picture I took in Las Vegas had blog post potential. In fact, I can't wait to blog about my week. Another time. Here are a few shots that I think capture the spirit of my week...

OMG. Hot. It's hot in Sacramento but Vegas just saps your energy if you're not used to it. However, we still had a good time and took a nap here and there!

On the way to Beatles Love. With Doug. In a kilt.

First time Cirque du Soleil for me! Wow!

Dinner at 10:30 PM? Awesome. Still HOT!

Back to my writing place. Jen posted some great quotes from some amazing authors to inspire us to think about where we write. From Jen's website:

"Here's another quote, this time from Ralph Fletcher, who has written a lot about writers notebooks (which, incidentally, are amazing and a fantastic place to start with student writers - you can read about his resources in this blog post)"

“…I have found that often,

my best brainstorming takes place

when I’m not writing at all

but when I’m just living –

taking a walk, taking a shower,

dreaming while I sleep.

I might be making a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich

when all of a sudden an idea jumps into my head.

A writer is always alert for ideas

that can feed the writing.”

-Ralph Fletcher, How Writers Work

Or this one:

"This week, I read 

The Right to Write by Julia Cameron 

where she explains, 

"Wherever I am, whenever I can, I write."

This I believe with all my heart. My writing place is sometimes my kitchen table, where I am now, tapping away at my Chromebook. Sometimes it's within the pages of one of my many writer's notebooks. I have lost track of them all and have a stack of blank ones in my closet! I especially like to write in a paper notebook when I read professional books. But my favorite writer's notebook-- my iPhone-- goes with me everywhere. I love my iPhone. I can capture so many things in an image that I could never write down. An expression, the sunset, shades of blue, a smile. My camera roll is writing waiting to be written whenever I have time to take a look. Right now, my camera roll is filled with stories, blog posts, and even a keynote idea or two. My vacation to the coast. Cambria. Santa Barbara. Eight missions in 4 days. Even aliens and beef jerky and a purple unicorn at a truck stop. Paris? No, that's Las Vegas and another post I need to write.

Paris. Las Vegas

I love writing. Anywhere and everywhere. On paper. On Twitter. My blog. Finding the place isn't the hard part because my writing place is where ever I am- even in my mind. And I never write with music in the background. Maybe I should try that!

So, to answer Jen's question... 

What are you looking forward to and planning for the week ahead?

I'm making TIME to write. Closing my door. Not missing a day. 

Pinky swear.